Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) Receives $42.00 Average Target Price from Analysts

Exelon Co. (NASDAQ:EXC) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the eight ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $42.38.

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of Exelon in a report on Thursday, September 19th. They set a “buy” rating and a $46.00 price target on the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective on Exelon from $41.00 to $44.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 15th. Scotiabank lifted their price target on Exelon from $40.00 to $42.00 and gave the company a “sector perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. UBS Group boosted their price target on Exelon from $40.00 to $43.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, September 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Exelon from $46.00 to $44.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 22nd.

Exelon Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:EXC opened at $38.19 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $38.00 and its 200 day simple moving average is $38.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.66, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 0.97. Exelon has a 1 year low of $33.35 and a 1 year high of $41.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $38.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 0.55.

Exelon (NASDAQ:EXC) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The company reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.67 by $0.04. The company had revenue of $6.15 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $5.85 billion. Exelon had a return on equity of 9.47% and a net margin of 10.60%. Exelon’s revenue was up 2.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.67 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Exelon will post 2.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Exelon Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, December 13th. Stockholders of record on Monday, November 11th were given a dividend of $0.38 per share. This represents a $1.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.98%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, November 8th. Exelon’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 62.55%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in EXC. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Exelon by 666.2% in the second quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 3,583,477 shares of the company’s stock worth $124,024,000 after purchasing an additional 3,115,763 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its position in shares of Exelon by 109.0% during the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 5,884,282 shares of the company’s stock worth $238,608,000 after buying an additional 3,068,309 shares during the period. State Street Corp increased its stake in shares of Exelon by 3.7% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 60,169,219 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,439,862,000 after acquiring an additional 2,156,259 shares in the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB lifted its position in shares of Exelon by 418.1% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 2,501,392 shares of the company’s stock valued at $94,152,000 after acquiring an additional 2,018,604 shares during the period. Finally, FMR LLC boosted its stake in Exelon by 18.7% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 11,782,549 shares of the company’s stock worth $477,782,000 after acquiring an additional 1,858,502 shares in the last quarter. 80.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About Exelon

Exelon Corporation, a utility services holding company, engages in the energy distribution and transmission businesses in the United States and Canada. The company is involved in the purchase and regulated retail sale of electricity and natural gas, transmission and distribution of electricity, and distribution of natural gas to retail customers.